This is ultimately my favorite crowd pleaser and wonderful b-day cake. My friend Sonia says "people who dont like chocolate are not to be trusted". First time I introduced it in Belize doing a vegan workshop for local people, also teaching mamas how to "hide" vegetables in desserts, in that time they had abundance of beets and so it came up. 

For the cake:

1 cup roasted pureed beetroot

2 cups plain unsweetened almond milk

1 Tbsp cream of tartar

1.5 cups raw cane sugar (I mixed date sugar and xylitol)

1/2 cup melted coconut oil

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

1 C GF oat (or quinoa flour), 2-3 Tbs cocnut flour (it has sweetness) or you can just add 1.5 C oat flour

3/4 cup almond meal

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of kosher salt

For the frosting:

1 ripe avocados, halved and pitted

2-3 tbsp cocoa

1/2 cup maple syrup

2 Tbsp melted coconut oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

few pinches kosher salt, chilli 

To roast the beets:

Preheat oven to 400. Chop the stems off your beets, as well as the tips if they are long. Scrub clean. Wrap in foil and roast until a fork slides easily to the center of the beet, 60-75 minutes. Remove, unwrap, and set aside until cool enough to handle.

Once cooled, peel the beets by pushing the skins off with the back of a knife. they should slide off easily. Cut the beets into chunks and place in the bowl of a food processor. Puree, scraping down the sides as necessary. You may have to add a bit of water to encourage the beets to puree. Scoop out 1 cup of puree for this recipe - the rest is leftover, you may use for juice or salad.

To make the cake:

Lower oven temp to 350. Coat cake pan with oil. I dependes what kind of pan you have you might wanna split the batter between two pans, I made the heart shape and had some batter left to make 3 cupkaces.

Whisk together almond milk and cream of tartar in a large bowl. Let sit about 15 minutes to curdle.

To the almond milk mixture, add 1 cup of beet puree, sugar, coconut oil, and vanilla extract. With a hand mixer (or in a stand mixer), beat until foamy, about 30 seconds. (This is important so that the coconut oil does not separate and solidify.)

Sift in remaining dry ingredients. Beat again to incorporate.

Divide between the cake pans. Bake at 350 until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with fudgy crumbs, 30-35 minutes, cupkaces only 20 minutes

Remove and cool completely in the pans on wire racks. Then, if time allows, transfer pans to the fridge to cool further. Run a knife around the edge of the cake pan before inverting the cake and peeling off the parchment paper. (Be sure you allow the cakes to cool completely before removing, or they will not hold together!)

To make the frosting:

Scoop out the flesh of the avocados and place in the bowl of a food processor. Puree until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and puree again, scraping down the sides of the bowl.